Two priests, Fr. Andrew Wise and Fr. John Speekman, have started a petition effort on their blog called “Restore Communion On The Tongue Only.” They, and the 2484 (so far) signatories to their petition, are asking the Pope to restore the ancient and traditional Roman practice of reception of Holy Communion that was obligatory until Pope Paul VI approved the 1969 Vatican Instruction, Memoriale Domini. Read More »

The big news in American Catholic circles is the Obama administration’s “contraceptive mandate.” This latest unethical intrusion of big governmnet stipulates that employers, including religious institutions, provide their employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and specific abortifacients such as Ella and Plan B.

Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle summarized the situation: “If this unprecedented aggression against the religious freedom rights of Catholics is allowed to stand, then virtually all Catholic institutions — colleges, universities, secondary schools, hospitals, charities, service providers, fraternal orders, and advocacy organizations — will be forced to pay for procedures, devices, and chemicals abhorrent to the consciences of Catholics.” Read More »

From the Holy Father’s Address to the Participants of the Plenary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:

Also the study documents produced by the various ecumenical dialogues have great relevance. Such texts cannot be ignored, because they are an important, though temporary, fruit of the common reflection matured throughout the years. Nevertheless, they are to be recognized Read More »

CNA reports: With this [HHS] decision, the cardinal-designate wrote, “the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.”

Bishop Jenky: There are certainly some in our state whose commitment to [atheistic] secularism is so intense that they may well try to restrict the Church’s role only to the sacristy and sanctuary.

Read more from the bishop’s Pastoral Letter of January 8 on secularism here.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, and Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia are among the bishops urging Catholics to oppose the Obama administration’s mandate that requires religious agencies to offer contraceptive and sterilization coverage to their employees. Read more here.

This is Michael Voris at his best. Yes, I said “apostasy” in the headline. If 65% of US Catholics agree that the world is a better place because of “religious diversity,” when they could have said that Christianity should be the “one world religion,” we have that many Catholics who don’t believe in the real God (the one, true one), the real Jesus (who founded the Catholic Church, commanding it to make disciples of all nations), or the real Church (the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic one, outside of which no one at all is saved). Only 15% preferred that Christianity be the one world religion. That, by the way, is too general; but there was not an option for Catholicism as the one world religion.

Here is the Vanity Fair article Voris is talking about.

Most Reverend Peter A. Libasci, Bishop of Manchester, and other leaders of Catholic institutions in New Hampshire are denouncing the recent announcement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) intends to implement a rule that mandates that coverage for sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception be included in virtually all health plans, regardless of whether the employer or the insured individual has a moral objection to such drugs and procedures. Bishop Libasci said the edict represents an untenable attack on religious liberty and a radical incursion into freedom of conscience. Read More »

Catholic Hospitals are in worse condition than Catholic Universities, and that’s saying something.

From EastSideHunky: Following the secularization of the culture in general, yet another “catholic” hospital system, Catholic Healthcare West, has decided to ecumenize its mission and philosophy and become something for everyone. Rather than solidify and re-invigorate its once-Catholic identity.

AsiaNews: A “prayer campaign” for the Church in China, “which is at the most difficult and decisive crossroads in its recent history” is the request that the PIME father Piero Gheddo and Angelo Lazzarotto have made to 530 cloistered convents in Italy. In formulating their request, Fr Gheddo writes that the Chinese Church “today is a beautiful hope for the universal Church and especially for the mission in Asia, the continent that is home to 80-82% of the world’s non-Christians!” but that it is “divided and is in danger of falling into a schism”. Read more here.